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May have no significance, but Scotlandspeople have an inventory listed dated 8/4/1836 for an Alexander Gregory of Drumlithie ( in their free index to Wills and Testaments).
Isobel
The naming tradition is
First daughter after mother's mother
Second daughter after father's mother
Third daughter after mother
First son after father's father
Second son after mother's father
Third son after father
Subsequent children after great-grandparents, uncles/aunts, other relatives, friends, minister/doctor/laird/schoolmaster/prominent citizen or their wives.
There are of course variations, for example when two grandparents, or a grandparent and a parent, have the same given name, or if an important other relative dies just before the birth of a child, and so on. But if you know that three out of the four conform to the pattern, or if you can trace the pattern through the generations, it may help to home in on the fourth grandparent's given name.
I note that you are quoting the IGI. It is important to realise that the IGI is, as its name suggests, an index. The original documents cen be viewed online at modest cost at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk and they sometimes contain other useful information, such as the witnesses to a baptism.
The usual title used by the clerk to a parish is Session Clerk, so I suppose Session(s) Officer could mean the same. So the man in Dunnottar looks quite promising.
However Dunnottar is not in Aberdeenshire, but in Kincardineshire.
Thank you for this. I have checked out the marriage and baptisms. No other Gregory's were witnesses. There were two different men - John Walker, one of Uras and one of Crawton who witnessed the baptism of their 3 sons, twins James and Robert and also Joseph.
Alexander's wife Margaret Guthrie was from Old Machar, Aberdeen. The banns were read there as well as in Dunnottar. I was wondering whether this is the Aberdeen connection. Would Margaret maybe have returned to her family in Aberdeen to give birth or is this unlikely?The Session Clerk took the minutes of the Session meetings and kept other parish records. At this period he was usually the schoolmaster. The Kirk Officer or beadle opened the kirk, rang the bell, and generally acted as a servant of the Session. "Session officer" sounds more like the kirk officer than the session clerk. The minutes of the kirk session usually records the appointment of these two officials as they were paid posts.
It sounds as though the parish records of Dunnottar around 1810 - 1840 would be worth further investigation. Does anyone know if these records still exist and if so, where and how could I access them?
Would it be likely that a farmer would have carried out the role of Kirk Officer? According to the will Alexander couldn't sign the will due to damage to his hand. I wonder if this suggests he may otherwise have been able to write, rather than due to illiteracy?I'm thinking of Dr Gregory's Mixture, a medicine named for an Aberdeen doctor. They were originally MacGregors who resorted to Gregory when the name was outlawed.
Interesting! I hadn't appreciated the name MacGregor had been outlawed.m
Skoosh.